The influence of austenitizing temperature on prior austenite grain size and resistance to abrasion wear of selected low-alloy boron steel

Abstract

This study forms part of the current research on modern steel groups with higher resistance to abrasive wear. In order to reduce the intensity of wear processes, and also to minimize their impact, the immediate priority seems to be a search for a correlation between the chemical composition and structure of these materials and their properties. In this paper, the correlation between prior austenite grain size and wear resistance to abrasion were researched. The growth of austenite grains is an important factor in the analysis of the microstructure, as the grain size has an effect on the kinetics of phase transformation. The wear behavior has been investigated using GOST (Russian) standard T-07 wear test equipment in which the steel samples were worn by coarse alumina particles (grit size #90). The wear of the steels was evaluated by weight loss and their wear mechanisms were investigated using scanning electron microscopy. The abrasive wear mechanisms for analyzed low-alloy steels with boron additions were micro-cutting, micro-chips removal and micro-plowing. After the test it was stated that with an increase in austenite grain size, the intensity of wear increases, and the resistance to abrasive wear reduces, both in a linear manner.